Larry King, the television talk show host who recently retired from CNN after 25 years of hosting his own show, once commented: “If you want to get on my show, all you need to do is take out a gun and blow your parents away.” He wasn’t encouraging that type of behavior; he was simply stating a fact. What he did not say was: “If you want to get on my show, all you need to do is take care of your elderly parents day after day, month after month, and year after year, until they pass away. After that, I’ll invite you on my show to talk about the heroic sacrifice that you made.”

If you pay any attention to the news, you know about the attempted murder last Saturday of Gabrielle Giffords, a congresswoman from Arizona. Just in case you’re not up to speed on the details of the incident, I’ll give you a brief summary of what happened, and then a few of my own thoughts and observations that I haven’t seen expressed by anyone else.